San Francisco

I wanted to find some interesting styles of poetry for 2022. Metered poetry has always been a challenge for me. I discovered I subconsciously avoided the challenge of dabbling in this particular writing pattern. This year I decided to spread my wings and fly into the face of the storm. I stumbled across the Aquarian by accident and thought it might be interesting to play with this metered style during the last part of January and the entire month of February. This one I will call San Francisco.

I am discovering this style of poetry is harder than it first appeared. You only have to develop fourteen syllables for each stanza, but sometimes you want to write more. Plus, I find the constant counting of the syllables distracting. I also have to fight the urge to create rhythms. These short poems have gotten darker, and I am not sure why. Maybe it’s caused by the dark winter or all the conflicting messages we get these days. One thing for sure, sadness captured my attention during this dark winter.

About the Aquarian and San Francisco

Maris Mazz created this metered style of poetry.

Each stanza has lines of 2/4/6/2 syllables. They can have any number of stanzas creating multiples of 4 lines. They aren’t supposed to rhythm at all.

 San Francisco

Rooster
A Hippie child
Native Californian

Traveled

All the 
Way from his home
In San Berdoo to the
Corner of

Haight and
Ashbury where
A girl from across
The street

Said they
Missed it by a
Mile, but they refused to
Go home

Because 
First the four had
Jumped a train heading north
And they

Ended up
On an Indian
Reservation and a 
Young guy

Took them 
In and he fed
Them in exchange for word
From the

Outside
World beyond the
Reservation borders
The four

Gave up
The train riding
Plan and thumbed all 
The way

To Haight
And Ashbury corner
They might have arrived late
To make 

The scene
But they had a
Pound of pot and four
Restless


Thumbs left
Between them to
Get back home Safe and sound
Eventually

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

Be sure to follow Molly on Twitter!